CAPE TOWN – Players come and go – it’s just the nature of the game.
Let’s use Monaco as an example: After a stellar season, in which they won France’s Ligue 1 and impressed all and sundry with their scintillating performances in the Champions League, top clubs have snatched up the team’s best players.
Earlier this week, Benjamin Mendy became the most expensive defender in football history in transferring to Manchester City for £52million; the brilliant Bernardo Silva is already at Man City, while Tiemoue Bakayoko has joined Chelsea.
Arsenal have a bid on the table for Thomas Lemar, and it won’t be too long (either this season or the next) before rising stars Kylian Mbappe and Fabinho are on their way.
This is the reality of modern-day football. Anybody expecting players to remain at a club for loyalty is probably watching the sport on Mars.
A footballer’s career is short, which is why he needs to make the most of his youth, talent and energy.
So when Father Time takes its toll, and the inevitability of age kicks in, the individual is financially set for life.
In the past, especially in South Africa, far too many top-level players struggled after retiring because there was very little money in the professional game.
Today, the PSL is awash with money, together with overseas-playing opportunities, so nobody should be begrudging players when they decide to move on.
Ajax Cape Town captain Travis Graham has refused to sign a contract extension. Photo: Ryan Wilkisky, BackpagePix
The only currency that flows through modern football is money and ambition.
Ajax Cape Town are in the spotlight at the moment, with two players – Rivaldo Coetzee and Travis Graham – trying to force moves to other clubs.
The two, though, are using different strategies: Coetzee did not show up for the start of pre-season, but after a meeting with Ajax chief executive Ari Efstathiou yesterday, Coetzee announced that he will be returning to training.
Coetzee’s demands are that either Ajax sell him, or he stays, but is remunerated commensurate to his high profile at the club.
Mamelodi Sundowns are rumoured to be in demand for the 20-year-old centre-back.
Club captain Graham has one year left on his contract and is refusing to sign an extension.
He did show up for the start of pre-season (but isn’t playing in friendlies), and is negotiating with the club to find an amicable solution.
Speculation is that SuperSport United are in the market for Graham’s services.
Whatever the merits or demerits of the two cases, the big problem has been the lack of communication. And this, of course, is something extremely indigenous to football in South Africa.
Everything is always shrouded in mystery, be it crowd figures or transfer fees, and heaven forbid, if there’s a controversy, don’t expect to get anything out of anybody.
Defender Rivaldo Coetzee wants to be sold or get a better deal at Ajax Cape Town. Photo: Ryan Wilkisky, BackpagePix
With not much forthcoming from the Urban Warriors and the players, the Coetzee/Graham issue has left the situation ripe for speculation.
Hence, social media has been abuzz with rumour and innuendo – comments like Ajax paying players slave wages, and Coetzee being unprofessional and disrespectful.
With better communication, such a scenario could easily have been avoided.
From a personal perspective, there is no way I can agree with the manner in which Coetzee has chosen to go about things. His first priority should always be to the club and his teammates, and the respect that flows both ways.
In other words, continue training, do your job as a professional, while at the same time trying to sort out your personal disagreements with the club.
But be that is it may, the point though is that season after season, Ajax have to endure such bad press. They are always accused of being a “selling club”.
Here’s some news for such critics: Every club is a selling club. In football, there will always be bigger and smaller clubs – and the bigger will always be looking to take what it can from the smaller, in order to become even bigger.
It’s football, it’s life, whether we like it or not.
Monaco, like Ajax, are famed for their youth development, and they sustain their model by the sale of their young, marketable stars. For every Bakayoko, Silva and Mendy they sell, there are more of the same waiting in the wings in the academy.
So, too, at Ajax: Year after year, there is more and more outrageous football talent coming through the Cape club’s ranks. Place in the PSL squad needs to be made for them – and in order for that to happen, players have to move on.
Tiemoue Bakayoko has joined Chelsea from Monaco. Photo: @ChelseaFC via Twitter
If it’s to be Coetzee and Graham, then so be it – but most importantly, it’s not the train smash it’s always made out to be. Just like Monaco, Ajax will go on without those who leave. Players as I say move, it’s just how the game works.
Graham is now 24 and he has been at Ajax since the age of nine – that’s 15 years of top-level coaching, development, maturity, knowledge and intellectual property invested in making him become what he is today.
The same applies to Coetzee.
All Ajax are asking is – and it appears to be a big hurdle at the moment – that when big clubs come calling, they are compensated adequately for the amount of time, energy and money they have spent on developing these kids.
Surely, the club deserves to get back what it has put in.
But right now, it’s the amount, the transfer fee, especially for the local market, that appears to be causing all the controversy.